I sat down and made a wire form in the shape of a Star Trek insignia. That then led to designing a ball ( left rail / right rail) mechanism that alternates after each ball as a vertical upkicker is used to load the ball at the top of the insignia.
I have a shooting white wood that I will post later in the build. I got a donor machine today for the boards, cabinet and mechs. It will take a bit of time as I have a young son and he is the play tester. (He’s 5).
Star Trek Discovery has a huge amount of story lines over the two seasons that are great for mission style modes. Here is my mode list a work in progress:

Torch Bearer
Klingon war
Michael
Alternate universe
Lorca battle
Spore drive
Pike
Control
Red Angel

Hopefully this might be interesting for others. Any Proc tips
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Well its official. I killed a xtreme machine today. Man is that a boring game with horrendous call outs.

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Keeping the main mech and just roughed out a altered ball catch and return as the vuk location is being moved to the back and feed the wireforms I made. Mounting a discovery ship on top of rotating mech. This is really interesting to figure out. So far its going slow because of time I can spare, but got alot figured out today. Not using the xtreme playfield, just using it to hammer out the shape needed.

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Got the 3d printer started up and have bumper caps printed out. More to come. Ender pro 3. Machine is very good and priced very well for what it can do.

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I redid the left corner section as I was not happy with the way it was. I built a mini playfield, built wire forms in the box frame that when you shoot the left ramp the ball goes around the box and feeds back to upper flipper. The upper flipper has two newton ball shots. The upper has a ball catch that must be hit to release it back to lower newton. Theres also two stand ups on inside of them and theres going to be a kick out plate in center. I will add more pictures and details as it goes. Very fun.

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That playfield has a switch in back middle corner. The ball comes back and feeds the upper flipper well. Theres 5 targets for that flipper to hit, so I racked my brain to come up with this.

Thanks for the interest!. One of the manufacturers should consider going after discovery for themselves and making another Star Trek machine. Theres a good amount of material in the two seasons that aired.

I really enjoyed the first two seasons. I was originally going to make a Wrath of Kahn machine. Ricardo Montalban version. I stumbled into Discovery late and watched the whole 2 seasons. Way more story and it was really interesting to me and enjoyable. The girl from walking dead is a really good character and actress. Star trek Picard ruined my next gen machine. Every time I look at back glass I now see Picard the Android. Seriously wtf!

Newton ball mech. Works well and will be good alternating shots from upper flipper top to bottom. The center target is a kickback plate assembly that will fire the ball right back at flipper. The artwork will be a top down view of a ship. Thinking newton balls will be laser fire and kickback photon torpedo. Still planning / programming all this out.

Sarcastic words read to literal. I was just beating up the captains now an android storyline. My wife loves Picard and she was like he died and became an android? Yup. Thats where they went with it. I only meant it as a joke towards that storyline.
She loves Picard and I am a Kirk guy (Shatner). So I like to get her riled up when I get the chance.

Trying to rough out artwork on my lunch breaks. Looking to layer Michael standing on broken starship during her talk with Spock as they figured out time jumps is where I am at mentally. The center hole shot for ramps will have the beat the game shot where she goes through time holes. The back panel at end of playfield will have artwork of that jump. That scene of her getting pulled through time was visually amazing and thats my end game goal point. Forgive the pencil work. Just illustrating this whole process start to finish. Need to do better scale on broken ship section and get Michael on it where it looks good.

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Printed black and white pictures over constant drawing on wood. Primitive photo shop.

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Mounting all mechs and wiring today. Should have flipping video by sunday. I also have a artist hired to paint playfield and cabinet. This is the white wood. I picked up baltic birch 9ply wood from a lumber supply in Plainfield NJ, so I will beat the hell out of whitewood and make all the tweaks and fixes before I cut and have the other ready for painting.

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Progressing nicely. The artist and her artwork will not disappoint. She has paintings of aircrafts that are stunning. The ships will look amazing. Michael will be on playfield and on cabinet as well.

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I am not doing inserts on this playfield. They will be on final one. Doing this by hand. I will illustrate the layout of inserts when I get there. This is fun. If you got a theme and desire go for it.

Its alive! Still tweaking switches, but it is alive!

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Wood screws not good enough for vuk. Had to drill out and install studs. Otherwise it shoots fine and I improved the left ramp with a metal flap and I relocated switch to front of that ramp as it was more reliable and does not impede ball like it did in frame box. Proc board will replace strikers. I have to program everything and that will take the most time. Running strikers board I figured I could get the playfield done and fine tuned then figure out lights, inserts and rules. I do not know if I can do lcd with this combo proc and stern drivers. Hopefully I can.

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The plastic will be the virtual screen in front of Michael. We are going to paint Michael reaching out to that panel. The plastic will have that look of her screens. Looking forward to that image mixed with the image of her on playfield. The drawing shows what were aiming for. Disregard the ships, I prefer the other Klingon ship over this one.

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Got hung up with makeshift ball catch that feeds vuk. I am just bypassing 3d print and going to make a wireform to catch and feed vuk. Way more forgiving and easier to adjust. I wasted half a day tweaking that plastic mock up. I am better with welding rods.

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The Enterprise needs to be on the playfield. I like the forward tilted view on it. I am thinking by left middle target having red angel as another shot.

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Looking for input on either clear coating the playfield or using a playfield protector? I have not seen or played a machine with protector on it. This is a one off artist playfield, so i am curious about the protector route? Any pros or cons? It will be easy to install as playfield would be empty after painting.

Welded up ball catch for rear vuk.

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Plays. I have to adjust a few things, but its up and running. Will post video once its good for video.

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The upper left rotating mech and 4 bank drop are from striker. I added the looping ramp to it only. The machine is currently playing striker xtreme with the stern board. Next step is going to be Proc board and programming code. That will take the longest. But, I can play it as is and fine tune it. The right spinner is great and my favorite shot on it so far.

I did add the 4 ball lock and catch assembly to the right wireform. That too is from striker. I will 3d print something to cover it. Original has stadium. Unless I can figure out a star trek stadium shape that can make sense with artwork I will have to make something for it. It works, but the membrane switch has bad traces on 2 sensors. I am going to try rear defogger repair kit as it does same thing as circuit paint. My welding is hit or miss. I really took my time on the wireforms they look better, but not perfect either. And “I will gut you for your insolence” Zitt!!!

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Rear defogger kit repair on membrane traces. I could not find my circuit pen, so autoparts kit fixed it.

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Machine playing showing mechs and shots with phone hanging in my shirt wedged to my neck. You can see a good amount of what I am going for.

Pinball life has a new one for $100. I will go that way if this one craps out. So far its working ok. Thanks for the tip. Gameplay video is up too!